Story of a Time Agent, Dancing, and the Time Lord
by elfmaiden4legs
Summary: What happened after the famous dance? Jack is injured and forced into time alone with The Doctor whilst he patches him up. What will the Doctor discover about Jack? Why did he join the Time Agency? What if he found out about Grey long before anybody else?


**The Story of a Time Agent, Dancing, and the Time Lord**

"Jack, what's this?" Rose asked, as she pulled her palm away from where she'd been resting it against Jack's army issue trench coat, the sound of Glen Millar now softly fading in the background, to reveal it stained with what on first glance appeared to be blood. "Are you bleeding?" She exclaimed.

Jack laughed, doing his best to pass off the young blonde's concerns at this… he'd received worst paper cuts. "It's nothing… just a scratch." He assured her.

But Rose wasn't convinced, and was already beginning to undo Jack's greatcoat, throwing it back to reveal the shirt and clothing beneath. She gasped as she noticed the patch of blood staining. "Jack, you're covered in blood." She exclaimed before hailing the Doctor over from where he'd already began to busy himself at the TARDIS controls.

"Doctor…" She called. "Come and have a look at this."

"It's nothing, really Doctor." Jack insisted as the Time Lord began to make his way over, although as he did his best to conceal the growing patch of scarlet staining just below his ribcage the Doctor had already noticed the bleeding, and was now eyeing Jack questioningly.

"How did that happen?" He asked, the corners of his brow beginning to furrow with concern.

Jack shrugged, none commitment in his response. "I dunno, must have just caught it I suppose." He replied. "I thought I felt something catch me across the abdomen whilst I was intercepting the bomb earlier… but it was nothing, piece of shrapnel from the bomb maybe… just a scratch."

"That's more than just a scratch." Rose looked at him.

"Well, that needs tending to!" The Doctor instructed with raised eyebrows. "Med bay now!"

"I've told you Doctor, it's nothing!" Jack insisted, but his protests fell on deaf ears.

"Rose, would you watch the TARDIS for me, just for a moment?" The Time Lord asked, the young girl nodding in response before he turned back to address Jack. "Med bay, with me, now!" He ordered, turning and marching from the room. Captain Jack turned back helplessly to glance at Rose for a moment looking for a way out of the situation he'd now found himself in, but she only motioned for him to follow and with this he resigned himself to his fate – forced into spending time alone with a man who he knew hated his guts.

He sighed, following solemnly behind, clutching his injured and bleeding side as he went.

**...DW**

"You don't trust me do you Doctor?" Jack asked, now sitting naked from the top, a pair of loose, cord tie, cotton trousers tied at his waist, upon the cold metallic examination table of the TARDIS medical bay. The Doctor had already completed his initial examination of Jack and determined that although his injuries were reasonably deep they were only superficial flesh wounds.

"Why do you say that?" The Doctor asked, cutting a line of thin metallic thread from a small reel, as he prepared to stitch the wound. "I haven't said anything."

"You don't have to Doctor." Jack sighed, flinching slightly, and averting his gaze as he caught sight of the tiny needle. "It's written all over your face, and to be honest I don't blame you. For all I know you could be right not to."

The Doctor shook his head, Jack grimaced as he cleared away the last of the dry blood from around the deep gash to Jack's ribcage with antiseptic, grinding his teeth tightly together and letting out an audible hiss of pain. The Doctor looked up at him with this, the concern clear from his anxious expression, although unspoken.

"Sorry." He sighed, as he resumed to tending to Jack's still seeping and bleeding wounds. "I should have warned you, this is going to sting."

Jack sighed. "It doesn't matter." He responded, and the Doctor was surprised by the depth of despondency and self doubt to his tone, when only hours before he'd appeared so full of confidence and self-assured, leading the Doctor to believe that this demonstration of character was probably all just a charade, a front he put on to fool people into believing that he was the person he wanted to be… we maybe not now, the Doctor thought, perhaps now he was damaged and his spirit broken, but maybe with the Time Lord's guidance and patience he could become that whole, pure of heart, and compete individual he evidently wanted to be. "I probably deserve it anyway."

The Doctor shook his head. "Jack, what you've done in the past doesn't interest me, it's what you do now that matters. The way you reacted earlier on, intercepting that bomb in the way you did, risking your life like that, was so brave. I'd be prepared to bet that you're not the man you think you are or might be… don't look." He advised his new companion compassionately as he threaded the tiny needle with the wire thread, and prepared to stitch the wound, Jack turned away but flinched noticeably as the cold metallic point pierced his flesh. "I don't just take anybody on aboard the TARDIS." The Doctor continued, attempting to distract Jack from the discomfort. "Although I don't think Rose would have ever forgiven me had I simply allowed you to die… you've made quite an impression on her. But I recognised something special in you back there, something worth having aboard the TARDIS, and I choose my companions wisely. After over nine hundred years I consider myself a pretty shrewd judge of character."

"You don't understand Doctor," Jack shook his head. "Where I come from the Time Agency is admired by a great many people, it represents prosperity and success, to have a time agent in the family is a huge honour, it brings good standing and respect. The day that I joined up my mother was so proud, in her eyes it seemed to obliterate any wrong I'd ever done, all the pain I'd caused her… but, you see I could never completely rejoice in my 'success'. I'd never shared in their high regard for the Time Agency, I'd never wanted to be part of it."

"Then why did you join up?" The Doctor frowned, as he finished stitching the wound and cut the remainder of metallic thread before preparing a combination of gauze dressings and crepe bandage.

Jack sighed.

"I lost someone, a long time ago." He explained. "They offered me the chance to find them, the deal of a lifetime… it was my fault you see." The young Captain bit back the salty tears, expression contorted in a grimace of pain as the memory slowly overwhelmed him, before he turned away.

"Who?" The Doctor asked gently.

"My little brother." Jack choked, and a single tear rolled down his pale cheek as he looked deep into the Time Lord's ancient eyes, full of wisdom. For the first time the Doctor could see just how angry, and mixed up, and confused the young man was, and he made it a resolution to fix him, to prove to him his worth, and to show him that he was capable of so much more.

"What was his name?" He pressed Jack soothingly, hoping to get the young man to open up to him, but Jack simply shook his head. "I don't want to talk about it anymore." He said, and the Doctor realised that that spelled the end of the conversation. "But you see Doctor, I'm damaged goods, you don't want me here."

"On the contrary." The Doctor smiled, wisely. "I think you're just the right man for the job." Before adding. "You're done." He informed him. "It was just a superficial flesh wound, I'll recheck your bandages tomorrow."

"Doctor, Jack, where are you?" Just then the pair looked up as they heard Rose as she made her way in the direction of the medical bay in search of them, and they looked at each other and smiled. Jack jumped down from the examination table rather stiffly, and the Doctor handed him some spare clothes.

"Come on, we'd better not keep her waiting." The Time Lord chucked. "I'll get her to show you to your room, whilst I fly the TARDIS out of here. She's getting restless."

"Who though, Rose or the TRADIS?" Jack winked, and the Doctor directed him a despairing glance. Suddenly Jack froze with this however, and shot the Doctor a bemused and uncomprehending look.

"What's the matter?" The Doctor frowned.

"You mean it then? I can really stay?" He asked, as though what the Doctor had just said had only just dawned on him.

"Of course I mean it." The Doctor nodded. "I'm not the type to go around breaking my promises Jack… well, only occasionally, and only to those few moronic people who deserve it." He grinned. "You're one of the team now."

"Thank you." Jack smiled, and the Doctor could tell by the look in his eyes, without need for any further word what this meant to him.

"Besides, where else would you go?" He asked, quite seriously, and Jack shook his head, before the pair looked at each other and burst out into fits of mutual laughter… a new found friendship beginning to blossom, and respect and understanding for each other.

"Come on then." The Doctor smiled, and the pair made their way out into the numerous long and winding TARDIS corridors in search of Rose.


End file.
